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Oh wow, I remember city chicken from when I was a kid. It's not strictly a Cincinnati thing. It's more of a carryover from the early 20th century/Depression and was found primarily in the Appalachian regions of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and such. People would take scraps of meat, mostly pork because it was cheaper than chicken, and skewer them to form a sort of "drumstick" that resembled a chicken leg. That's probably where the name came from. I remember my mom deep frying them and they were good!

When you live in the country you can just slaughter a chicken when you want fresh meat. In the city, pre-electric refridgeration, you have to use salted beef or pork. Due to the economics of transporting meat, city people would not get much fresh chicken for 9 months a year due to spoilage, so 'city chicken' was beef and pork tenderloins cooked like chicken. At least that is how my grandmother explains it to me.

City Chicken was originally made with pork and veal, alternated on a skewer, then breaded. Now it almost always pork. The original "Joy of Cooking" had it under "Mock Drumsticks". It's even mentioned in the movie, "Julie and Julia". We have it about once a month.

I personally haven't seen city chicken for some time, but boy do I remember it from my youth. From what I remember, it was mock drumsticks on a wooden skewer made out of chunks of pork. I also remember some sort of breading. But what I remember very well was the taste, ummm... good...

I am not sure whether it was a problem of refrigeration back then or not, but I do remember the chicken we consumed seemed to be different from now. First of there was the fryer, which as I remember seemed a little emaciated compared to what you see today. I do remember it was the whole chicken which my mother than took her cleaver to when preparing.

Second, there was the stewer. This was the one we made chicken and dumplings out of. When prepared and reasoned right, nothing better. If it was not the dumplings, the extra wide homemade egg noodles making up chicken noodle soup was the meal of the day.

Thirdly, there was the broiler or roaster. I have less remembrances of this specific genre, but know we had to consume them. In my vague memory the roaster may have been the choice for a weekend dinner.

As good as the real chicken of my youth were, city chicken was not bad either.

Does anyone know if this is the same as:
"Chicken on a stick"? My grandmother used to serve chicken on a stick (long wooden sticks) and she lived through the depression. This was in Pittsburgh, Pa.

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